Search Tips

Most of the Web sites accessible from the CDC Tobacco Industry Documents Web site use search engines. Although many of the sites provide specific instructions for searching their database of documents, the following basic search tips should apply to all search engines.

Simple searches support two basic operators:

For example, if you would like to search for documents indexed by nicotine and addiction, type nicotine+addiction in the search box.

To search for documents indexed by nicotine but not addiction, type

nicotine-addiction in the search box.

Advanced searches support the following Boolean operators:

Boolean operators must appear in ALL CAPS with a space before and after.

The AND operator functions much like the + operator. For example, if you would like to search for documents indexed by nicotine and addiction, type nicotine AND addiction in the search box.

To search for documents meeting at least one of the search criteria, use the OR operator. For example, to search for documents indexed by nicotine or addiction, type nicotine OR addiction.

To search for documents that meet the first and not the second criteria, use the AND NOT operator. For example, to search for documents indexed by nicotine, but not by addiction, type nicotine AND NOT addiction.

Operators can be combined for more complex searches by using parentheses. For example, to search for documents indexed by either nicotine or addiction with either cigarette or smoking, the search query would be:

Some sites allow you to search on a specific field. The available fields and their abbreviations will be provided to you at those sites. For example, if you wish to search on document titles containing addiction, type title:addiction.

Privacy Policy | Accessibility

Home | Industry Sites | Smoking & Health Database | Site Map | Contact Us

CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z

This page last reviewed November 18, 1999